"Just when the clamor over ""traditional"" marriage couldn't get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, ""What tradition?"" In Marriage, a History, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the torments of Victorian lovers to demonstrate how recent the idea of marrying for love is-and how absurd it would have seemed to most of our ancestors. It was when marriage moved into the emotional sphere in the nineteenth century, she argues, that it suffered as an institution just as it began to thrive as a personal relationship. This enlightening and hugely entertaining book brings intelligence, perspective, and wit to today's marital debate."
By:
Stephanie Coontz
Imprint: Putnam
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: annotated edition
Dimensions:
Height: 213mm,
Width: 140mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 425g
ISBN: 9780143036678
ISBN 10: 014303667X
Pages: 432
Publication Date: 28 February 2006
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Part One: In Search of Traditional Marriage Chapter 1: The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love Chapter 2: The Many Meanings of Marriage Chapter 3: The Invention of Marriage Part Two: The Era of Political Marriage Chapter 4: Soap Operas of the Ancient World Chapter 5: Something Borrowed: The Marital Legacy of the Classical World and Early Christianity Chapter 6: Playing the Bishop, Capturing the Queen: Aristocratic Marriages in Early Medieval Europe Chapter 7: How the Other 95 Percent Wed: Marriage Among the Common Folk of the Middle Ages Chapter 8: Something Old, Something New: Western European Marriage at the Dawn of the Modern Age Part Three: The Love Revolution Chapter 9: From Yoke Mates to Soul Mates: Emergence of the Love Match and the Male Provider Marriage Chapter 10: ""Two Birds Within One Nest"": Sentimental Marriage in Nineteenth-Century Europe and North America Chapter 11: ""A Heaving Volcano"": Beneath the Surface of Victorian Marriage Chapter 12: ""The Time When Mountains Move Has Come"": From Sentimental to Sexual Marriage Chapter 13: Making Do, Then Making Babies: Marriage in the Great Depression and World War II Chapter 14: The Era of Ozzie and Harriet: The Long Decade of ""Traditional"" Marriage Part Four: Courting Disaster? The Collapse of Universal and Lifelong Marriage Chapter 15: Winds of Change: Marriage in the 1960s and 1970s Chapter 16: The Perfect Storm: The Transformation of Marriage at the End of the Twentieth Century Chapter 17: Uncharted Territory: How the Transformation of Marriage Is Changing Our Lives Conclusion: Better or Worse? The Future of Marriage Conclusion Notes"
Reviews for Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
Brilliant and invariably provocative. . . . Pick a favourite presumption and Ms.Coontz proceeds to unravel the mythical conceit.
